Why Are Cooking Shows? | We're In Hell
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 22 апр 2021
- An extremely deep dive into food media to explain: why is Cook Your Ass Off such a garbage show
Support the channel by becoming a patron: www.patreon.com/user?u=15387042
Catch me streaming on Twitch where I'm one half of / thegoatandthegoblin
Follow me on Twitter: / wereinhellyt
and join my Discord server: / discord
Big thank you to the people who helped make this:
Voiceovers by @ThatJess (ruclips.net/channel/UC55M..., @LackingSaint ( / lackingsaint , and Darragh Mondoux ( / votre.dame ) contact www.hausofmarc.com/darragh-mo... for bookings.
Music by Will Jarvis (willjarvis.bandcamp.com/)
Works Cited:
Giousmpasoglou, Charalampos, et al. “The Role of the Celebrity Chef.” International Journal of Hospitality Management, 2020. (Giousmpasoglou et al.)
Hamilton, Dorothy. “From ‘Commis’ To Rock Stars.” Log, No 34, Anyone Corporation, 2015 (Hamilton)
hyman, gwen. “The Taste of Fame: Chefs, Diners, Celebrity, Class.” Gastronomica, no. 3, University of California Press, 2008, pp. 43-52. Crossref, doi:10.1525/gfc.2008.8.3.43. (hyman)
Ketchum, Cheri. “The Essence of Cooking Shows: How the Food Network Constructs Consumer Fantasies.” Journal of Communication Inquiry, no. 3, SAGE Publications, July 2005, pp. 217-34. Crossref, doi:10.1177/0196859905275972.
(Ketchum)
Oren, Tasha. “On the Line: Format, Cooking and Competition as Television Values.” Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, no. 2, SAGE Publications, July 2013, pp. 20-35. Crossref, doi:10.7227/cst.8.2.3. (Oren)
ray, krishnendu. “Domesticating Cuisine: Food and Aesthetics on American Television.” Gastronomica, no. 1, University of California Press, Feb. 2007, pp. 50-63. Crossref, doi:10.1525/gfc.2007.7.1.50. (ray)
Zopiatis, Anastasios, and Yioula Melanthiou. “The Celebrity Chef Phenomenon: A (Reflective) Commentary.” International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, no. 2, Emerald, Feb. 2019, pp. 538-56. Crossref, doi:10.1108/ijchm-12-2017-0822. (Zopiatis and Melanthiou)
I worked fast food and was very fast. Multiple managers told me they appreciated me b/c "they didn't have to schedule anyone to work with me" - my reward for being a hard worker was to have to do more by myself. This fact has never left me.
Had to deal with the same thing when I worked fast food. It was my first job. I always tried to do my best and take what meager pride I could in my work and got very efficient at all the kitchen stuff. And the kind of thanks I got was having more work saddled on me because shift leads knew that I would do it. Was too much work apparently to make sure other people could do a job correctly, so instead they made the same person do it every night, no matter what.
This happened to me at a fancy restaurant lmaooo
When i left for a job in engineering, they kept texting me while i was at work asking me to just come cover a few shifts cos they were sooo short-staffed 🙄
this has happened to me multiple times and ive quit no 2 weeks everytime.
Same here, but with a job back in 76 in a little "light mechanical engineering" workshop. Then when the "raises" came around, everyone v ne but me because as the (welsh) boss said, "I don't mind your long hair and your beard, but I dontlike your attitude". That was bout the time he came by me standing out of the oily dark smog in the shed, soaking in the record breaking Sunshine. "What do you think would happen if everyone adopted this attitude ?". I replied, "Well I guess we would all be that much happier and healthier".
"Bad attitude"
As a waitress they realised I'd literally kill myself to make sure customers had a good experience as I was a naive 17 year old, as a reward I had to control the entire restaurant while my manager slacked off and I had no other servers to help
The "do you see any fat cave man" argument for paleo really grates on me. Because, no Jon, I don't see any cave man at all, because they are dead.
Not to mention, maybe their lifestyles were a little different than modem man? Like, if you go paeleo maybe you should hunt all day and live in an actual cave, every moment a fight for survival.
@@Guitarisforgrins I'm sure that would certainly thin one's waist
@@MrFeederperson exactly
@@Guitarisforgrins That's why paleo people annoy me so much. Prehistoric humans lived under completely different circumstances than we do now. Their diet was what it was because of their lifestyle.
@@stardragon7893 The worst part is how paleo people present their ideas as obvious. Like making the "did you see caveman eating carrots" argument is presented as a smart take.
"someone who wakes up with a scratchy throat and mild fever who thinks it's okay to call in sick, is not who I'm looking for"
... sir, you're cooking people's food
That's how you kill somebody
@@JayPersing its how you start an outbreak.
@Fourthmatchflame well yeah, but toddlers n stuff don't exactly handle that well. And sometimes you get hit bad by something even with a good immune system and honestly I like not being sick. Being sick sucks
I'm so dedicated I use my loogies as seasoning. Hork!
Legit I went to a trade high school and while not a full formal kitchen we did make food for people and the first stuff they drilled into our heads was safety and hygiene, including not making sick people touch food
Gordon Ramsey being recorded going off at a line cook and then having to sit down with the union and their representation is absolutely something I would watch
Lol union restaurants?
@@theapartmentrat.578 why not? Just because we don't have it yet doesn't mean we can't
Big mood! Would love to see it
Yeah, restaurants have removed the union. It is possible in hotels in certain cities.
@@theapartmentrat.578 Las Vegas has a very strong culinary union...most servers, bussers, kitchen staff etc are a part of it
"A good cook shows up to work sick!" says the book written by a chef, apparently not realising that cooks *handle people's food for a living*
seriously! i really hope that at the very least this pandemic makes employers less shitty about employees calling in sick (but tbh i doubt it'll actually change that much)
@@Jukajobs it most certainly hasn’t.
@@Jukajobs no, you need social security for that.
In Europe no one who sick will turn up for work. It’s not appreciated if you do, your boss will sent you home. In the Netherlands the employer must pay you 100% for as long as it takes to get better.
@Derin Edala not only do they directly handle food for hundreds of people daily, hopefully, but being sick really affects your taste and a good chef needs to taste their food to tell if its overcooked, if the seasoning is good etc..
Theres a point where a strong "work ethic" meets diminishing returns.
@@jannetteberends8730 that’s amazing. I hope the US will have universal healthcare one day. Hopefully I can move away soon
"I'm smiling because you used turmeric" was somehow so disturbing to me, a South Asian American who puts turmeric in most things I cook. I don't want such vampire energy smiling at me
im smiling because you used salt and pepper
@@red2theelectricboogaloo961 no you get a point for the pepper. but using salt is a big no no and thats a deduction
@@242nicolas i like salt though give me my fucking point back
...please and thank you
@@242nicolas GIVE THAT MAN HIS POINT BACK. SALT IS THE SHIT. I PUT THAT IN MY WATER BRO
@@242nicolas You need salt... Just don't go overboard and know what ur doing when u use it. But it's definitely terrible when it's too much I agree on that
lmao half of these people's problems (and mine too) is "it is hard to find healthy, affordable lunches on the go that are nutritious and satisfying, and furthermore i don't have time to eat" to which the solution is "i'm gonna make fucking ceviche"
It's why I'm not too hard on meal delivery services, particularly the most mocked subtype of already prepared food sent through the mail. Sure people could save money making their own smoothies, or they can save time buying overpriced frozen ones that they drop two almond milk cubes into along with some water and dump in the blender. It's why I'm not so hard on places like Panera, assembling sandwiches you probably could have made at home for your convenience. People are busy. People often need to outsource a lot of their food preparation to others. The availability of simple healthy items that are easy for the employees to prepare is a good thing, not a sign of "lazy millennials".
The costs of the time you use to make your diner,
can be measured in the amount of money they have to pay you to work that extra time. (It’s actually how to measure the value of an extra hour of leisure, a marginal hour)
Literally they're failing to make the dishes in the time these people probably actually have! If not more than some of them.
Honestly, I’ve just been stocking up on campbells soup cans, especially the single-serving ones that are meant to be microwaved and then drank on the go. Always tomato soup because it’s my absolute favorite. Take the lid off, toss it in the microwave at work for a minute, drink it and my belly is full until I eat my next meal six hours later. Cheap enough and it’s just delicious soup.
Slow cooker batch cooking. 10 mins prep, five dinners. I might make the world's most boring cooking show. 👍
"There's no healthy alternative to cheesy fries." Silken tofu, nutritional yeast, salt, pepper, paprika- blend together with a Nutribullet or something; bake some potato wedges, combine. This man has never met a vegan in his life. Sure, it's not the same but good lord have some creativity man
I know it is just the name, but I saw NUTRITIONAL YEAST and went 0_0
XD
Damn sounds like I should get into silken tofu more. So far I‘ve used a recipe for instant cheese sauce based on cashews that you can boil with some vegan milk when you want to
@@der94alexi do something similar for a vegan alfredo sauce! i include garlic and nutritional yeast plus a few extra seasoning and that shit goes HARD, im not even vegan but its stupid easy to make
For a second I thought you were coming up with a vegan alternative to potatoes, which would make no sense because they’re a root vegetable. I really need to go to bed lmao
I mean that’s like saying a healthy alternative to cheesy fries is an Oreo.
What you suggested is not healthy nor cheesy fries lol.
"This video isn't going to take a turn and suddenly be about capitalism"
There is not a single person who believed that and you know it
it doesn't suddenly become about capitalism if it was always about capitalism *taps forehead*
@@psychospiritual282deep thoughts
"born and bred in the corndog lifestyle" absolutely decimated me
More like born and breaded! Ha-HA!
He reminded me of a human corndog
as a midwesterner i completely and unironically relate
This guy killed me
Right it's like watching a Batman movie,how can you take something so absurd and ridiculous so very seriously?
I love how all of these “health” people just hate cheese so much, when cheese isn’t unhealthy unless you eat too much of it, and especially hard cheeses are packed with calcium and protein.
Vegan good, animal product baaad.
these people think eating itself is poisonous. the logical conclusion of diet bullshit.
The problem is the 'eat too much of it'- most people don't realise how calorie-dense cheese is, and even if you do it's still hard to visualise when eating a portion or eating cheesy things. There's plenty of people that can and do only eat healthy amounts of cheese, but I doubt there's much overlap between them and the category of people that have a hard time maintaining a healthy-to-fit weight. A lot of times it's just easier to tell people to cut it out entirely.
@@elgatonegro1703 when I abstain completely, I have a food relapse and start binging again. Moderation is so much better. Give into cravings as often as you can in a controlled healthy way
It also depends of where you’re from. Milk and stored milk in the form of cheese was a way for people living in the north to get enough vitamins d.
You pointing out cooking evolving into a “rare skill” really reminds me of how often I used to say that I can’t cook, which led to a lot of trouble feeding myself and dreading the act of preparing food since it felt insurmountable and like I had to be perfect to be able. It wasn’t until following people on Tiktok who just film how they cook normal dishes that I realized I can just… buy ingredients and cook them. No pre skill required. If it gets fucked up you just try again.
For me it was Life of Boris that taught me how to reconnect with old cookbooks that went "a handful" and "a fist-sized ball of dough" and "chop until it looks like it'll mix" and "to taste".
Dude gives 0 fucks and improvises so much I didn't even feel shame when I realized i didn't have a rolling pin for my first time tortilla attempt, but I DID have a sealed caulk can... so that's how I used caulk to flatten lazy dough into a very good pan tortilla.
More "eh, whatevs" cooks need to be on youtube, as I'm allergic to tiktok formats on account of "I already open 1,000+ tabs in firefox, do you think I won't binge tiktoks for 5 hours like I'm taking a wikiwalk" itis.
My Nana grew up during the great depression so a lot of her food was flexible in ingredients and made to stretch. She taught her kids to cook, but somehow my mom threw out the "cook whatever however" concept out the window and decided everything needed to be strictly measured. So when teaching me the recipes she learned from Nana, I was shown a card that had exact measurements on it. That's how I thought cooking was supposed to be. My mom had every meal planned out all week (smart tbh when in a household where everyone had a club or thing to go to) to such a degree that she calculated how much she'd need of each ingredient when grocery shopping. We didn't need to be frugal either. We were fine. Comfortable. But this was so overwhelming to me that when I started living on my own, I couldn't even fathom cooking anything that didn't have exact instructions and a pre-planned meal on it. Only recently have I been giving less of a shit and throwing pasta in a pot to cook, dumping canned veggies in, and trying out different seasonings to see if its good. It's just like how my Nana learned cooking and it's so much easier. I cut up and throw in Vienna sausages into Mac and cheese or Ramen noodles, add some other canned shit and it's tasty enough for me but the polar opposite of any of these shows.
It's important to learn basics like making bread and cooking pasta and cooking meats but all these shows that are showing cooking to be strictly about following strict recipes and requiring skill and needing to look and taste amazing is really detrimental to audiences. 99% of people won't have any real interest in getting to a professional level of cooking but be brainwashed into thinking they need to be if they want to feed themselves.
Not sure exactly why but your comment made me so happy! I'm glad you're more confident in your ability, because cooking is a necessity to a healthy life but you're right, it doesn't need to be perfect!
@@StubbornStupidity Baking is an exact science, cooking is mostly winging it when you're doing the basics. Tis why my low energy self only bakes one day a week but cooks three times a week. Also soup is amazing because you can throw a bunch of veg and protein in a pot with water and seasoning and boil it for a few hours and it's soup.
True. Children can sing. Generally carry a tune. When they then watch some talent show, they all of a sudden think they can't.
This video is what I've been saying for years. Cooking is womans work until it's cool and profitable then it's a career for men. Then when you say that, they pivot to 'working in a professional kitchen is grueling dangerous hard labor. Woman aren't physically strong enough to do it" when the people saying that are the ones who made it that way. It's ridiculous.
Its this long time sentiment that makes me resentful of the smug and popular male cooking-RUclipsrs (like Babish and Weissman) while ladies like Sohla don't do half their numbers, and must always refrain from sarcasm!! When I saw the Babish fanboys' comments on the videos with her in them, I was floored. She's an actual accomplished chef and he's just a nice guy with the biggest butcher block they've ever seen, but she shouldn't be showing off, and she should be more deferential to him, apparently.
It’s more when men do it, it’s seen as professional and hard-work. Not the other way around.
@@jackierobot4830 I haven’t watched much Babish, but I never really got that kind of attitude from him. He shows himself messing up a lot in quite a few videos, and he dosen’t seem to take things too seriously. I definitely get your comments about fans though, they can be absolute assholes.
Hair dressing is the same rn too. It’s a female dominated industry but most of the “top” stylists are mostly men. Yea there are female stylists at the top top and we need more men in the industry in general but it makes sense cause you don’t make a lot of money unless your high end or a celebrity stylist. And then you only get 30% in commission, socialist hell let me tell you.
@@jackierobot4830 to be fair to Babish, he often admits that he is not trained and basically has no clue what to do when working with prifessional-and always praised Shola to heaven. He also gave the woman doing the recipe-work her own show to highlight her better. I can't say anything about the fans, bot he himself is not guilty of that
The chefs: "Ugh, this person is a picky eater"
Also the chefs: "All your food is disgusting and I'd never eat it"
Probably because they're all vegan lol
@@comsicartisan7700 you don't need to be vegan to be a food snob
@@viardent8823 also I feel like most if not all food snobs are not a vegan.
Vegan is like the opposite of food snobby, it's restricting your diet to the bad ones.
Ever hear Gordon Ramsay ( the biggest food snob) on the subject, he thinks vegans can't be as good at cooking or know anything about food because they don't eat meat which he considers the best food.
Also the easiest to cook which is a bit ironic.
@@FrancisR420 honestly ppl like gordon ramsey who have such westernized ideals for food are such babies, thinking the ideal most gorgeous wonderful dish is a fancy steak, pasta, or a burger. vegans and vegetarians are some of the best cooks and chefs i know cause they know how to incorporate flavour, spice, and their cultures into the dishes they cook. meat is a lazy man ingredient :’) also can we talk about how dismissive saying vegans and vegetarians can’t be good cooks is? literally erasing hundreds of years of cuisine from so many cultures lol
@@lunaaaah I agree with everything but the idea that meat is a lazy man’s ingredient. You know many cultures also don’t have plants right?
But also, meat is just delicious
Absolutely begging you to cover “The Colony”- a show where they simulate post-apocalyptic conditions for a group of people and genuinely do not consider their safety or basic needs at all. It’s insane. The first season is wild.
Compilation link please?
god yes, I couldn’t keep up w the show bc I was busy in high school but the few episodes I did see just stuck w me and I’ve always wondered whatever happened to it
@@rotisseriepossum Same
Also a suspense movie from the 90's starring John Ritter about a creepy suburb closed-community with totalitarian designs.
The one that’s only children???
Lost my shit a little at "Why is everyone who writes about food such a freak?!"
most food articles I've read have either been bland as hell or bizarrely unhinged
me, adding paprika to my scrambled eggs: god, i'm such a tough, rough-edged, very hetero, rebel-without-a-cause, cowboy-boots-and-blue jeans type of guy. cooking is cool and i'm definitely secure in my masculinity, even though i'm cooking eggs, which are feminine.
Add hot sauce for that extra layer of testosterone
Never heard that eggs are feminine I mean Gaston ate dozens a day
I tastfully sprinkled some chopped parsley over my huevos rancheros and came in my pants.
I made a pesto for my homemade Gouda/basil grilled cheese today whilst wearing jeans and cowboy boots because I am a goddamn bearded man with a palette.
Fellas, is it gay to cook eggs?
The "cooking shows supports capitalism" idea just makes me think of any Chopped episode where the challenge is leftovers. Invariably, the chefs competing say things along the lines of "I don't use leftovers, I have no idea what to do" which has always made me want to scream at my tv.
I always like on Chopped when some organic high end chef has a melt down over having to use canned goods. Yeah, that’s completely normal food and you actually aren’t much of a chef if canned corn is beyond your capabilities to cook with. Also what did you expect?
It’s like they come on having never watched the show.
That always bugs me, my mom is a master w leftovers. Like, even if the original dish was good, she’s rly good at reinventing the leftovers
I usually just cook the right amount of food and then eat it. what kind of pleb has leftovers? Where am I supposed to get them?
I'm poor and live off about 800 a month, and I don't use leftovers, either. I simply cook only as much as I intend to consume at that time. I'm a bit of a picky eater and generally don't like reheated food, not just because of the way it effects the taste and texture, but also the risk of foodborne illness.
Yeah, anytime someone complains about using leftovers I just imagine how long it would take to make one or two servings of something like lasagna or meatloaf instead of just making the whole thing and putting some back for lunch or dinner later in the week. They could never have a cake or pie, unless they're throwing most of it out or eating with eleven other people. Maybe they just live off single-serving freezer food all the time? I mean, say they want some a slice of tomato or onion on their sandwich: do they just throw the rest away? So wasteful.
"Yes employee who handles food all day you must come work while sick, and we'll let you use the hand sanitizer locker an extra time today just to be safe"
It's a miracle we didn't get a pandemic sooner tbh
Meanwhile we have to wash our hands 9000x a shift and aren't allowed to work with a consistent cough. It's not safe. It's nasty.
11:14 Host: "How is this inspired by the cheesy fries?"
Chef: "Its not"
absolute savage
"My favorite snack is nachos."
"I want to throw up right now. I'm like, how am I going to change [him]?"
I love him so much
It's fine just get a deer to lick all the salt off him
I wanted to see more of this character
Me, watching this vid while eating a plate of nachos: *sweats nervously*
*Looks at a bunch of salad with crisps in*
Idk. Maybe. Take the crisps out?
Finally a cooking essay that addresses my deep need to kill and eat powerful chefs so I might gain their abilities.
@a kind demon Gordon Ramsay. I'd eat him with Kenji alt Lopez and give the scraps to the queen.
What is it with chefs and cannibalism?
this is the representation we need
@a kind demon Maybe after mastering all the other proteins, human's are like the forbidden brisket
@@nahometesfay1112 not kenji.....
@@red2theelectricboogaloo961 To be clear I'm not eating Kenji I'm sharing Gordon with Kenji. In fact it was all Kenji's idea!
"Nobody would watch that." I think you're wrong. A show that presented working-class people bringing their concerns and gripes to their bosses would probably make a lot of people feel seen. Negotiating better conditions could be empowering. So I think there could be a real problem of production companies not wanting to do that.
Lol, certainly not a reality show, though. A documentary perhaps, maybe a drama film
Of course they don't want to do that. Because if the actors in your show are talking to their boss about their conditions and concerns and fair pay, who's to say the film crew at your studio isn't gonna do the same? Can't have that.
Being a server has melted my brain because as soon as the line cook uniform came on he became 200% hotter
Bro same
Dude imagine if you enter a wood carving competition and your grand prize is you get to make things for this random guy who can't carve Wood and you have to do it for free.
The 50k is their year's salary
And the guy doesn’t even like trees
imagine being insane enough not only to steal all the chicken breasts from the pantry while on a cooking show, but also to answer, when asked if you stole all the chicken breasts, answer, "I *sure* did!"
@@TheEnoEtile I think any real chef would rather win by taste than by default because no one else had access to the main ingredient. If they do that, they’re only winning a reputation for knowing they’re own cooking isn’t as good as their competitors. There’s no point in even entering a competition then.
@@TheEnoEtile These people don’t compete for money. They do it for recognition because this is their career.
@@TheEnoEtile Just because there’s a cash prize doesn’t mean that’s the only reason they do it. Romanticizing people? No, lol, It’s their JOB which they have a reputation in and it pays their bills. Going on a show where everyone watches them play dirty and win by a default would hurt their reputation in their own industry. Some of them have spent years and money on school, equipment and training. If they actually wanted to continue in the culinary industry and be taken seriously they wouldn’t risk it for a cash prize.
@@TheEnoEtile Ramsay OWNS his restaurants. He’s paid to act the way he does by the shows and he does so because he’s already proven his talent to the industry. He doesn’t even cook in his own restaurants anymore. He stars in content for shows and social media so he’s free to play into whatever image he wants to without hurting his career. Also, I’m not saying someone can’t get a job because of a TV appearance, but it could jeopardize something big for them. Someone who doesn’t care about their reputation like that probably doesn’t care about actually being a chef and is more interested in achieving other things television related.
@@TheEnoEtile I assure you, it’s not about the chicken lol. You think it’s a good move, I think it was a bad move. We just have different opinions.
I used to be obsessed with cooking contests until I could no longer stand everyone's rampant egos! I respect the passion of the Chefs and their confidence, but so many of them were arrogant and cruel. I became so fatigued with Chefs tearing each other down to rise up. Now I mostly just watch baking competitions. The contestants tend to be more humble and friendly and just want to make art and spread joy. Thanks for making this well thought out video essay. It's cool to hear your take on the insanity of being a line cook.
You wanna check out some Norwegian cooking shows? I find them a lot less agressive.
@@MissCaraMint Nice, I'd probably love them. Thanks for the suggestion.
in cooking contests they act like it’s a battle to the death or something but with baking contests they act like it’s just a friendly competition (which it is!!)
One time my coworker asked how many eggs to put in something and my boss (who is an awesome and talented chef) started saying how one egg has x amount of ounces y amount for whites and so my coworker should use 6 eggs,,,, I literally looked at here in awe while she said that and when she was done talking I said "I love your knowledge" and she just bashfully looked down, laughed and said "thank you"
I was in genuine amazement and mean my statement with all of my being
Shoutout to that guy on cutthroat kitchen who said pancakes were too "lowbrow" for him
Now I want to see a TV show that takes fancy high end head chefs and forces them to work in line cook / fast food positions in the most absurdly busy locations they can find with an overly strict, very confusing scoring system that punishes them for every mistake they make.
Prison Kitchen MasterChef. Anyone want to invest?
That comparison between food and mother’s milk sounds like me trying to bullshit my way through an English paper on a book I never opened
What got me was when she's like, "AND WHEN A MAN COOKS FOOD..." but then she never says it. I think vore is a stretch but she's absolutely thinking of people putting male meat in their mouths.
its just a ponced up explanation of branding
@@theodorebear6714 you would absolutely need to stretch to consume a chef whole and alive, agreed
@@theodorebear6714 Well the language she was using was an allusion to the Last Supper, comparing the head chef and his food to the body and blood of Christ. It was like she was presenting the relationship between a head chef and his underlings to that of Christ and his disciples. Like they are expected to worship and honor him as their saviour.
@@hoathanatos6179 Not at all the vibe I got. In fact, it seemed more closely related to some dialogue between the demons in CS Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, talking about absorbing each other's essences to gain power and dominance.
I love how they wouldn’t tell the chefs things the “unhealthy” people wouldn’t eat, it makes it seem even more awkward lmao. This whole show also just exudes pretentious health and fitness nut, like the yoga mom who asks if you’ve tried turmeric for your rheumatoid arthritis oof.
If turmeric was a cure for arthritis, basically nobody in India would have arthritis lmao
I have debilitating autoimmune arthritis that I'm on chemo for and I swear to God, if I had a dollar for every essential oil selling, hipster soccer Mom who tried to sell me some "natural remedy" that would "completely cure me" I'd be _VERY_ wealthy.
I get what you are saying 100%. I work with animals, and there are so many people who seem to think that charcoal and honey will somehow fix any ailment that their pet can have. So frustrating when we finally get a chance with them when they are on deaths door. However, some people will experience a lot of success from making changes to their diet. This can be very powerful for that person... almost blinding. They will then become very enthusiastic about the things that worked for them, and lose the ability to reasonably assess individuals and circumstances and the particulars on an ailment. Unless they are in an MLM- then you just want you to buy something. I know it is frustrating and belittling, but often it comes from a genuine desire for you to feel better- annoyingly enough.
i feel like you should atleast TRY the food, even if you don't like it. you're a judge, it isn't fair to the chef for you to not give them an opinion just because you're picky.
And incredible unhelpful, it it would be aout conveying the basics of healthy food thats easy to make afortable, and tastes, dont be vague, teaching basics can be incredile fun too. Just have a fun personality or anter by doing so.
And if you have a knowledgale fun cook, cracking jokes, look at youtue videos, imagine that, in tv.
I love Gordon Ramsey but u see him yell at all the chefs in the shows he’s in and it’s always justified by “that’s just how it is, if you can’t handle it, get out of the kitchen”. Like yeah, but should it be like that?
i’m a year late, but he expressed the same sentiments in his hot ones interview. i’m pretty sure he even used the term “snowflake”
middle aged white guy try to make things better for the next generation challenge (impossible)
Gordon and similar are why I took so long to learn how to cook and still scared to do it. I can't even sautee' without hearing him or the judges on Food network judges yelling at me in the back of my head.
"That's how it is" My brother in Christ YOU'RE the reason it's that way
It's a TV show. Reality TV is ironically enough, not real at all.
@@damienthonk1506Some chefs absolutely yell like Ramsay does. Many are even worse than him
As a disillusioned anarcho-line cook who also has a strong disdain for reality tv myself, I would looove to watch a show made up of Gordan Ramsey defending himself from a union rep, while the kitchen runs itself in the background. 😆
Anarcho-line cook might be the most niche political affiliation I've ever seen
@@SineN0mine3 …. Well if that ain’t the truest thing ive seen today
I work in a bakery and the wild west thing *very much* applies. The kitchen manager carries around combat knives and likes to flip them around during down time. The owners son is packing heat at least 50% of the time. The previous cake decorator was addicted to... something. More than once the dudes who make the bread have gotten into a fist fight while I have to run to the front and assure the customers everything is fine. EVERYONE but me smokes. People work 18 hour days during the holidays. I forgot what the point of this comment was, I just need you all to know what goes in to making a pie or whatever.
@@scapegoatmiller9110 this has got to be a common thing in food service, a lot of my coworkers have records too. Some of these guys have been working there for over a decade bc no one else will take a chance on them. As weird as they all are I actually love my coworkers (well, the ones not related to my boss, anyway) and i feel insane seeing all the ways they're being taken advantage of.
Holy Shit! That's terrifying!
You gave me a good chuckle my friend 🤠
If only one guys was addicted to something you might work in the healthiest kitchen. line cooks and drugs are soul mates
Bakers seem especially intense cos of the hours, got some... stories. All of BOH is wild, FOH used to keep me going as *the sole dishwasher during rushes* by giving me as much booze as i could drink. Never ever got a raise but they split tips w me for working fast enough to make their jobs less hellish - stingy owner didn't buy nearly enough plates or pans for full capacity lmao
The fact that this show doesn't tell people what their contestant doesn't like is just...so funny to me. Like, absurdly bad design for a show. Dietary roulette or something, how can you make someone a personalized, healthier diet if you don't even know what they don't like/won't eat?
I sure hope they disclose their allergies...
because if they respectfully took into account what everyone liked to eat/could eat, and actually cared about having a setting that promoted such (like not having people throw away half of a meal that’s nearly finished because they need like two extra minutes, I get the point is to find quick recipes for people that are busy, but like realistically if you leave two minutes later to finish making your breakfast it’s not going to make a difference) then it wouldn’t be very interesting tv. I mean let’s be real a place for learning to cook, and eating healthier etc probably isn’t very ethical if it seems reminiscent of something appropriate for reality tv. I’m completely sure it was for tension and drama.
It creates "controversy" and "story" if there does end up being an ingredient that they don't like. You get the guest complaining, possible reaction from the contestant, possibly an argument and they can interview the contestant after about how they felt that the effort was for nothing, lol.
I'm sure they disclose allergies because that's an obvious liability issue, but something like someone's personal taste can create minor "content" in this case. Has nothing to do with what makes the most sense or demonstrates a basic respect for the people they have on. They could have arranged for each contestant to have the basic ingredients and equipment they'd need for each ep too, lol.
They’ll get watermelon and love it!
@@TuesdaysArt No, the chefs have to guess. "His throat is closing up. Peter is definitely allergic to peanuts and that's going to cost this cook some points. No, wait, Peter is giving a thumbs up, no points lost!"
It's interesting, what you said about celebrity chef/restaurant culture reminds me a lot of animation. The whole "suffering for your art" thing is a really big and unfortunate part of it
"Born and bred in the corndog lifestyle" is one of those strings of words that should probably never exist together
He doesn't want someone who won't come in with a FEVER? I feel like fevers and vomiting are two of the biggest 'you need to stay home' flags ever!
I've worked with people who were so sick they needed to take breaks so they could run to the bathroom and puke then come back and get right back to work.
I worked prep in a restaurant, once had a dude cut his finger half off with a cleaver, down to the bone, and he tried to just wrap it up and get back to work. It took me and three other people to get him to go to the hospital. Good thing too, as he ended up severing a tendon and probably would have lost motion in his finger if he didn't get it treated.
I have had a manager give me shit for calling off because I had Pneumonia, I wish this was an isolated incident but it just isn't. Like it gets into cartoonish evil.
Do these managers not care at all if the other employees or patrons get sick as well? Fever normally means contagious! If all the employees got sick bc one person was forced to come in, how is THAT going to help the business?!
@@WereInHell I've been that worker. I've thrown up in several employer bathrooms and go back to work bc I either can't afford the day off or I don't want to deal with the backlash of calling out sick. Definitely not fun. But at least you have that nice 10 minutes of euphoric "feeling better" vibes after a good puke.... Before you're back in there a little bit later 😂
The real paleo diet is "wow, this sporangium covered fermented meat didn't kill me! Add it to the menu!"
My cat took a bite out of a squishy, wet mushroom that was falling apart, covered in bugs, and smelled like rotting flesh earlier. She hasn't died, shockingly. Anyways, that just reminds me perfectly of how a true paleo diet would operate, lol.
ooga booga put it on a hot rock then eat it
the real paleo diet is "shut up and eat it, you never know when you'll get more" (with a side of "some grains, fruit, and vegetables that everyone who stayed home from the mammoth hunt domesticated"*)
(*that's what the paleo diet was most of the time, tbh. Hunting is hard)
@@sholem_bond Domestication only came around with agriculture, before that it was all wild plants that got gathered. Also worth noting that the variety of plants gathered was bigger than what you find today at the produce section in the supermarket, as we've only domesticated a fraction of the plants that are edible. So the "paleo diet" isn't even close what they actually ate back then, unless you spend a significant portion of your time gathering plants in the forest, most of them bland, tough, wiry and/or filled with seeds.
the mad rush to finish is the perfect example why i think competitive cooking shows are antithetical to cooking good food.
This video helped me recognize some misogynistic things I’ve said in the past, jokingly, and wrongly. Thank you
Loved how you highlighted the sexism in the restaurant industry. It always perplexed me that while cooking in the home was traditionally relegated to women , those same women were not worthy enough to make it in the culinary world. Most celebrated chefs being men and distancing themselves from the domestic cook
Because women aren’t excepted to go make money to spend on everyone else in the damn family.
It's like that in everything like
Aren't women still fighting their way into the women's fashion industry at the top levels
It's because women's work is simultaneously undervalued and demanded for free. And the sexist idea that women in general cant handle the stresses of the workplace, also demanding all the stresses of having children and running the home without complaint
@@Lucas_Antar must be such a burden for men
@@esobelisk3110 have you ever gone to work and turned around spend none of the money on yourself? Cause that’s what most men do all their lives so yes it is and it’s annoying as fuck. That’s why I found a non traditional girl.
"You don't see any fat caveman"
Well, I've never met one personally so he's kinda right
I love it, it's such a great example of how uneducated you have to be to take the caveman diet at face value. Not only because, of course, no one has ever seen a fat caveman, but also because cavemen could've easily just died before their diets had a chance to make them fat. They didn't exactly have long lifespans, and any lack of physical fitness made you more likely to be food for predators, meaning the remaining cavemen would've been more physically fit through reasons unrelated to diet.
@@cwestrephx its doubly funny bc how do we even know there WEREN'T fat cavemen? All we have are bones! The Venus statuettes sure aren't skinny
@@InvaderGIR98 Yeah, we have bones, stick figures and a few statues. There's nothing to say there weren't fat ones, and (mind you, I don't really know all that much on this subject) having a little bit of fat could possibly be an advantage in an environment like a caveman because it could let you avoid starvation longer since you have that extra reserve of energy and possibly also keep you warmer
@@cwestrephx Its also flawed becase nothing they ate in those days is still alive today.
That whole mother’s milk bit was very Freudian and I hated every second of it.
the name and the fact that everyone is introduced with a current weight and goal weight kind of gives the game away. not really about health, just about fear of fatness lol.
The point you made about the masculinization of celebrity cooking helping to elevate the perception of food as art was an interesting one. To this day I think that things which are seen as being "for women" are not as widely respected unless men also start doing it.
For sure! And if women get into something or it's even perceived that way, it gets treated as lame. Look at wine culture.
Even when something is traditionally feminine and has mostly women doing it, when women do it, there isn't much recognition. When a man does it, not only is he recognized simply for doing a good job at something, but he is specifically praised for taking something typically done by women and being remarkably better than the women. It's like as soon as a man does something its worthy of praise and it's just more fuel for sexist people to throw women under the bus and talk about how much better men are at everything.
Like makeup. Woman does it, meh, that's what they all do.
Man learns how to do it. Wow! Why does he look better than every girl I know! It's amazing! He can do it better than we can!
This happened with computer programming. Many of the first coders were women, because coding was an outgrowth of the original purpose of computing, to type stuff. Typists were typically women. In the 80’s however, Regan backlash against 2nd wave feminism combined with people like Gates turned this new field into something that was seen as respected because it was men’s work. As a result, fewer women are encouraged to be coders, and you get tripe like the infamous screed against women at Google.
Amen to all of this. It's always frustrated me how male "celebrity chefs" cite their mothers and grandmothers as teaching them how to cook and inspiring them, but they're then able to build careers off of it instead of cooking for their family every day to little fanfare like a woman would. 🙄
@@sarahbarabe8470 I definitely feel this as a man who crochets.
That, "Line cooks never call in sick" mentality is just straight up the poor, minimum wage worker mentality. There are two kinds of people working at the lowest rung of society. The kind who call out for work, EVER, which is to say people who don't last long, and the people who hide the fact that they are sick as best as they can because they need the money. I worked at McDonald's for seven years, and never called out once in that entire time. It simply wasn't an option if you wanted the respect of your superiors. Calling in sick is something that the managers are careful to say everyone has the right to do, but the reality is that NO ONE BELEIVES THAT YOU ARE SICK. EVER. If you call in sick, the entire day is spent with people being angry that they're short-staffed, angry at YOU, and speculating about whether you have a hangover, or are out having fun somewhere.
Yea, at this moment in time it may be even more so a dick move to come into work sick, as you can end up spreading COVID, but if you think that changes things for those of us who rely on our minimum wage jobs to keep a roof over our heads, you're sorely mistaken. Fast food workers give less then no shits about the health of their customers. They care about keeping their jobs, getting to their next shift, and then getting home to pick up their kids from daycare. Their lives are simply too hard to afford to care about the health of the strangers that mistreat and insult them every day.
💯
You're so right. Every restaurant I worked at was like this.
Yeah i live in a small town where calling in while your sick is basically just getting on this shit list to firedville from every resturant here
@@slothymfer dude, that stuff can be even crazier in a big city where there are restaurant groups
You can *need* the money from your shitty minimum wage job and also be too sick to work. Give the rampant poverty among disabled people it's a bit fucked to suggest that they call in sick because they can afford to.
I worked as a hostess (and often waitresses/prep cook/dishwasher because the owners always asked me to do things I was not getting paid for 🙃) at a restaurant and bar in Seattle that was considered a popular “iconic” spot here. It was not considered fine dining but it was a more expensive and a very busy restaurant. The chefs were very interesting people but what stood out to me was how much they liked to help me learn to cook the recipes on slower days and also how they all stood up for me when a group of dudes came in already super drunk and one of them made mean comments about my 80s sweater and and my physical appearance. I started crying and walked into the kitchen and everyone was immediately concerned. They all stopped cooking and walked out to the table I had told them the customer was at. They made him leave by force, his friends ended up staying. One of the moments I felt valued as an employee or at least someone cared about the jobs impact on my emotions. 🤷🏻♀️.
Good restaurant crew is a symbiotic relationship :)
The chefs and servers would slide over to do dishes if I needed a break. I always did my best to get them everything they need. I would help prep and they'd help close me down at the end of the night.
As a masterchef/hell's kitchen ho myself, I'd absolutely watch 30 minutes of Gordon Ramsay getting chewed out by the chefs' union lmao
I would binge the whole series.
Omg the thing about forcing people to work while sick freaked me out. Maybe the pandemic has given me a new awareness but like, not only is it obviously abusive to force people to work sick, but you're giving your customers the flu?? Why would you state in a book how nasty and germ riddled your kitchen is??
This is the part I have literally never understood. Isn't it the *pragmatic* solution to not allow workers to come in sick for any reason?! Not only are you risking your entire staff getting sick if they do come in, but you're risking your customers and reputation as well... Yet they still do it! And companies encourage it by not offering paid sick leave, and work culture encourages it by putting perfect attendance on some sort of pedestal!
@@maitele Bb-but short term profits!!!
Also, if I get a bug from a restaurant, I'm sure as hell never going back there. I don't know if it's food poisoning or norovirus, but I'm never going to trust that place again.
It's an especially bad idea for food related businesses, seeing as that deals in products that people are consuming in the literal sense.
The reality of the restaurant industry is that you don't get sick leave and the cook mentality is to work sick because you are a "soldier" and aren't weak so you just work sick.
In court houses they play cooking shows because everything else makes people have breakdowns. There was part of an episode of Serial about it, they talked about how they used to play animal planet but the zoo episodes would remind people of prison.
that sounds like a very hinged institution
Cooking shows remind me of when I worked the kitchens at Chino.
uHm i just wanna say prison abolitionism is an option 💀
"...the zoo episodes would remind people of prison."
WTF. Our society is so horrible and punitive. Probably better than half of the people having breakdowns were in for drug charges.
I’d see it as extra punishment to be made to watch cookery shows
"It's amazing how much abuse someone can endure when there's nothing they can do to stop you. Must be because they really believe in the American dream!"
That is just too good.
Been a Woman Chef for 26 years. I was pleasantly surprised by the keenly insightful commentary after the first part of this video. As a Pastry Chef in a fine dining joint, I can also attest to the "wanting to bring themself to the CHEF" aspect of that....oddly horny...article....people are constantly coming into my kitchen without even asking, looking for our namesake, when he's hardly even here because he's old and deserves a freaking BREAK! lol
Restaurants are closing now because they can’t hire enough people who want to come in sick during a pandemic. I’ve seen more than a few pissy signs saying “we’re closing because nobody wants to work anymore”
i got fired bc of covid. i eventually found a corporate cooking job at a hospital kitchen. i get paid more. yearly raises. benefits, every other weekend off. kitchens are just gonna have to step up their game bc everyone had to go elsewhere and found some better places, even.
People in that industry put in real work but get paid like they're part-time teenagers saving up for a scooter. Something had to give.
Saw a post from a resturant owner i used to work for at the beginning of the pandemic decrying the shutdown because "what if they dont want to come back when its done" which was wild since i quit because of how poorly they appreciated the work people did for then
Yeah weird how they don't like capitalism when isn't working for them. Jesus christ I don't even want to rant about it.
Not to mention so many restaurants are run by people who can't figure out how to work an app or refused to do delivery because "the integrity of the food'. Guess what. The food's integrity doesn't matter when your restaurant closes and you aren't serving anybody anything.
The first thing I learned about restaurant culture is all the drugs people in the kitchen did.
I worked in a restaurant for like 4 months and I had so many coworkers ask if I sold my methylphenidate. And I felt guilty that I couldn’t share with them because I need it. Restaurant workers just get pushed so hard
@@berkleypearl2363 That's sad to be pushed into drug use. The folks I knew did meth.
Cocaine 🤪
cocaine
it isn’t a line if someone isn’t high on coke, smoking a joint by the dumpster, doing whippets in the cooler, rolling on molly or putting some shrooms into a milkshake. I’ve witnessed all of these things in the kitchens I’ve worked in lmfao
The time limit thing is hilarious! Sure, let's go ahead and encourage the chefs to literally run in a professional kitchen full of dangerous items.
It's more "realistic" on a show like Hell's Kitchen where they are multitasking efficiently in the way a busy restaurant would run. Running in a kitchen? With knives and hot things everywhere? No. Absolutely not.
... they actually made that tumblr post about "cooking show where the judges are normal people and contestants are eliminated by criteria like 'I don't like sour cream'"
the clip of the guys who made a tuna wrap and watermelon for the cheesy fry challenge was hysterical
I would watch the shit out of Gordon Ramsay getting in trouble with a cook's union for 30 minutes. Give it the incredibly over the top editing of the US version too.
Funny you mention the miserable conditions of working in a kitchen and being expected to just "suck it up.". When I was in college I worked as a fry cook at an Outback Steakhouse. I once pulled a double shift and when I got home I felt lousy. It was hours later that my then girlfriend realized I was burning up. I was running a fever of 103. Working as a line cook made me feel so beat up and sore, the symptoms of a flu(minus the congestion) were indistinguishable from how a shift in the kitchen made me feel.
An almond flour pancake with raw chocolate, cherries, and coconut. Ingredients I'd have to purchase at a trip to the grocery store, more expensive than their traditional counterparts, that take upwards of 30 minutes for a professional to turn into a half-completed dish.
And this is supposed to replace....a candy bar. Something that costs less than $2, that I can purchase at any corner store, that takes 5 minutes to buy and eat. The 3 reasons you buy a candy bar are their cheap cost, low effort, and indulgent taste. This replacement dish doesn't seem to satisfy any of the reasons you'd go for a candy bar.
I think maybe the producers of this show just don't know how real life works.
To be fair after having eaten an algerian friend's mom's desserts (as thanks for taking him on a tour of the town in the tourist traps and a hockey game), I can definitely say that the taste of some high-end tedious-work desserts are more than worth it.
Like I don't know how she made her fig cakes but I wrote her a full page of praises on her desserts for my friend to send with one of his letters back and she was very flattered.
To this day I still remember her stuffed dates and her fig cakes, like, I have sensory memories of eating them if I focus on how it looked.
I haven't wanted to marry someone I haven't met who's probably old enough to be my grandma over a candy bar, is all I'm saying.
"I was born and bred in the corn dog lifestyle."
I let out the most obnoxious laugh at that line, OMG.
I didn’t use the corndog lifestyle, the corn dog lifestyle chose me
Also I’m gay
He should have said... Born and breaded
as a former line cook of 7 years who only got out because of covid and finally put my social work degree to use and finally feel like I'm "allowed" to call in sick now... i wanna cry bc you are so perfect, this video is perfect, and this channel is perfect 🥺❤️
I feel like once you start doing those 14 hour days its hard to have the energy during off time to try to improve your situation or look for better work. I left before covid but i dont think anyone i worked the line with went back after things reopened except the head chef.
@@TribuneAquila honestly I feel that completely! it was easy for us all to complain about finding better work but so draining to actually do it with how exhausted you were in off time 😭. it always sucked having family and friends question why I wasn't applying for jobs in my field when they weren't considering me because my only experience besides my degree were line cook jobs too. I also only had one person from my kitchen return back to their job fully after we reopened which is wild considering how many folks we had to begin with!
I think I'm a bit spoiled. The kitchen I've worked in for 4 years now is an outlier to "normal" kitchen culture. The chef sends you home if you're too sick to function, they're responsive and willing to adjust your hours if you want to work more/less, sexism (almost) doesn't exist, and anyone who walks in acting like they're better than the rest get shown the door. I've been here long enough that I almost forgot it's not normal for this industry 😭
I know this is an old comment but its surprising how similar it is to my current job. My gm wont even schedule you for clopenings and keeps in mind the limits people have when it comes to working long hours. If youre an ass, everyone will kind of turn on you and you wont be very popular amongst the crew. Its a shame how most places will burn you to the bone and somehow wonder why they cant retain staff
As a restaurant worker who’s really into socialist essay type videos I never expected to actually be spotlighted in one. I feel like crying I loved this video so much
Also I’ve been a bartender, bar manager, expo, restaurant manager, head server, etc. and the culture of the American BOH (and honestly FOH to a different extent) is so toxic. It’s expected that doing drugs and drinking is basically a requirement to remain sane.
I had a kid nod out on the line and I almost had to narcan him. When I was a manager one night I also had a kid cut part of his thumb off, he was also high, and my idiot GM moved the first aid kit without mentioning it to.... anyone apparently. So Im doing dishes because we had no dish guy and I just get a shout from the BOH and walk into the kid standing over a trash can with blood everywhere. I temporarily stopped the bleeding and then ran over the CVS across the hall, that was about to close, to grab first aid supplies. I didn’t realize until later that I was completely covered in his blood and must have looked deranged.
Anyway I sent the kid home obviously, (he didn’t want to go to the hospital), and the other cook bitched about it nonstop for like an hour until I couldn’t take it anymore and just sent her home and cooked the entire rest of the night alone, still partially covered in blood. But I _was_ wearing an apron. 😅
That story is so eerily similar. I slipped with my knife a few months ago and took of the tip of my middle finger. First aid kit was severely under stocked so I wrapped my hand in paper towels, held it over my head, and walked 5 minutes to CVS to buy my own supplies to stop the bleeding, wrap my finger, and then work another 10 hours. I really need to get out of this industry.
@@JamesonWilde that’s awful I’m sorry to hear that happened to you. I’d like to say I’m surprised that nobody helped you but unfortunately this industry treats people like they are disposable and it is honestly disgusting. I remember one time a patron reached over the bar and grabbed me by my wrists and almost pulled me fully over the bar top and I was so shocked that I just said, “we don’t do that here.” And when I went to get my manager they didn’t so much as even talk to the man let alone tell him to leave. They honestly just could not care less about your safety and it’s so disheartening.
What the hell 😰😰😰 I'm so sorry, that's legitimately awful and unacceptable. Hopefully things are different here in my country, but I doubt it. What do you think could be the best method of changing these practises? As a customer?
@@madeniquevanwyk As a customer there isn’t much that you, individually, can do other than just being a kind and generally reasonable person. And if you are not in the US, where tipping is common practice, it is completely possible that the culture of the restaurant’s FOH and BOH are completely different due to the way that they are run.
Honestly it isn’t something you can do, but I thunk the best thing for restaurant and food workers would ultimately be unionization on a major scale. Protections are desperately needed because, at least in the states, there are massive issues in employee safety (by customers, other staff, and just in general) and how often higher ups will attempt to take advantage of the fact that most servers either don’t know their rights or have no recourse if their rights are violated.
Looking at all these comments, Jesus Christ!
A few years ago I fell in love with The Great British Baking Show. I love it because it doesn't rely on the tropes of many of the other shows. It's not a big gimmick with it's premise; they are just there to compete by baking. I've even learned how to bake some things from the show (although the more educational aspects have been dropped since the show moved to Channel 4). Mostly, the contestants are actually supportive with each other, rather than the cut-throat antagonism so many other shows lean on have.
I like it; definitely fits in the “food porn” category
The cut throat nature of other shows tbf might be explained by the fact that they’re all competing for money unlike in gbbo where they’re competing for fun and some time on tv
Also the space and the editing is done in a way that encourages that friendliness:
White and pastel colors, workspaces separated but close to each other, shots of nature
One thing I've always disliked about cooking competition shows, is that the absurdly tiny time limits force the contestants to be rushing like a maniac non-stop, and it prohibits longer cooking methods like braising or marinading.
Meanwhile, the Great British Baking Show gives more than enough time to complete these hours-long baked dishes. The contestants are amateurs, so they aren't expected to have the breakneck time-management skills of a professional chef. But working efficiently is still rewarded, and making mistakes will still cause that dramatic last-minute rush.
@@cobaltcat4227 and they try not to show any breakdowns cuz it's tradition for the hosts to curse next to the camera so they can't use that take during the worst of it.
"you didn't see any fat cavemen did ya??"
Sir I've never seen any caveman. Also I'm sure they were like constantly exercising and not sitting around watching Cook Your Ass Off every day either.
1) What grown adult refuses to eat a green bean, especially on live television
2) "I wanna throw up" in response to the prospect of making nachos is one of the most wildly out of touch things I've ever heard
Bourdain can blow me about the calling in sick and verbal abuse stuff. I know the poor guy is dead and that he suffered from a lot of issues in life, but that doesn’t excuse it.
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt is a big proponent of not abusing kitchen staff. Which sounds like a low bar but it goes against a lot of the prevailing kitchen culture.
You’re right and it can definitely be argued that that do whatever it takes fuck your health mentality in kitchen culture contributed to his problems and to many other peoples issues, including the low key drug culture in a lot of kitchens just to keep pace and cope with that environment. Like the idea that having sick people near food prep as a necessary evil is so fucked like you take all these other safety measures but throw the biggest one out all the time.
If anything, that probably contributed to his addictions and death
@@FreyaEinde low key??? i knew actual alcoholics and recovering alcoholics all at the helm of the kitchen i used to work at. i'm talking 'disappear like bojack horseman for 8 hours at a bar' alcoholic. everybody smoked and also did pot.
@@pharoahcaraboo9610 I mean I was trying to downplay that aspect but yeah...never worked in a kitchen that didn't have somebody also supplying weed, coke, or speed to the other coworkers as an open secret, many of whom were either recovering addicts or functioning addicts.I guess the low key part is people who've never worked in restaurants don't know.
10:02 what does he mean by fat? Because, uhh, yea, you would have. We would have eaten heavily in good seasons and pack on the weight to get us through leaner seasons. That's literally half the reason we develop fat stores.
As a former food service worker, I find these shows stressful to watch. I feel like I get a good look at your psyche by knowing you both worked as a line cook and still enjoy these shows.
Fun fact: you don't need any type of credentials to call yourself a nutritionist in the US.
I’m glad at the end there is a brief mention of unions. We got to organize more food workers. I spent about 12 years in food production, it’s difficult, hard and low paid. About 3 months ago I tried to organize my workplace, it’s still going on....starting a union is a process, and got fired, the union I was working with hired me on as an organizer. I’ve helped win two organizing campaigns since, can’t claim I was instrumental but helped. Anyway I think the time to organize more broadly in food production is now, a video like this is a signal that many people in food are fed up and want / need a change. If your in the nyc area and looking to organize let’s talk.
Unions are important.
hey im so glad I found this comment -- in NYC and would love to talk about this, been trying to learn more
"This episode isn't going to take a turn; I'm not going to suddenly be discussing capitalism"
*Five minutes later*
"And then the hospitality industry took advantage of reactionary anti-feminism to create marketing slogans and push forward hiring decisions that would appeal to conservative consumers, so that..."
Ahhh this is all so spot on. I love this so much.
The burn glamourising is real. I once cut myself during service and knew it was bad but the finger was still attached so I wrapped it in kitchen towel and stuffed it in a glove and duct taped it to prevent leaking. And I was super proud at myself for my badassery and didn't question for years later why there was a culture that feeding jerks who paid more for a meal than I earned on my shift was more important than keeping an appendage.
My partner has an office job. It's mandated and enforced that has to hold onto the rail while walking down the stairs to prevent a potential fall hazard.
Qualified chef for 15 years. Can't say I fit any of these stereo types you listed but I certainly worked for and worked with them. 70 hour 6 day weeks for 45k Aus a year. That's sweet fuck all to gurantee you serve good food for people. But I did. Why? No fucking clue. I was running a cafe/high volume function centre with out catering. Just myself , another chef And an apprentice.
Shit was rough. My life was shit because I was raised to be dedicated to my work. Everything else came second.
Those days are behind me though. 4 years ago a cleaner bought a 5 litre bottle of metho into the kitchen. No surprise it exploded onto me burning 48% of my overall body full thickness to muscle tissue and putting me on life support for 1 month and then years of rehab and operations.
And what do I have to show for my dedication to that job? Tight , grotesque scars. No glory. No heroes welcome when I wokeup. Nothing.
But what I did have was a new start and for that I can't thank fate enough.
Those wondering the place the accident happened at couldn't keep another chef under the conditions for the piss poor money. It just became too much and the place foreclosed before i even wokeup.
Everyone is always asking "why are cooking shows?" but never "how are cooking shows?" 😔😔
Generally bad and dumb, unless alton brown is there!
"If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen," seems to map on to the hyper-masculinity and intensity of the work ethic/hustle/competitive nature of the restaurant industry. It basically maps on to "If you can't handle this job like a REAL MAN then we'll find someone else who will do the work for inconsistent pay, rigid, late and/or early hours, sparse benefits, etc," and then on top of that the phrase makes it all sound like an Industry to be proud of - as the rugged cowboy - instead of critical of.
Also, the restaurant industry has the highest rate of sexual harassment of any industry in the US. Hmmm maybe it has something to do with the culture fostered by the overworked, underpaid, and rigidly hierarchical work environment?
Not to mention the manufactured subservient nature of customer service and how customers take that as permission to be predatory and coercive towards employees. My last restaurant job was staffed by mostly women and I can't tell you how many instances there were of my eighteen to early-twenties coworkers being harassed by older men.
But the idiom is still cool :(
I’m a producer at a nationwide doughnut chain, the only AFAB person working the job, and was romantically engaged to one of those sexist, proud-masochist line cook types. It was so cathartic to hear ideas that had bubbled in my mind emerge fully formed, much like the divine Athena, from the mouth of Brian David Gilbert’s aesthetic and spiritual twin
"I was born and bred in the corn dog lifestyle” oh my GOD
I sympathize with the guy saying there’s no healthy version of cheese fries. I work at Starbucks and feel that way about customers in the drive through who want nutrition information on different flavors of Frappuccino’s.
It’s a caffeinated milk shake. It doesn’t matter whether you get caramel instead of white chocolate or no whip cream. It’s not healthy. Either accept that fact or order something else
just eat what you want. a single serving of cheese fries is not going to kill you. even eating cheese fries once a month will make very little difference to your health.
@@nbcommiedyke Come on, you know that only works with an occasional cheese fries treat in an otherwise healthy diet.
Yeah this shit's giving me flashback to when I used to count calories, I wouldn't say it was an ED (although I'm no expert on it) but for a while my goal definitely seemed to be to best my previous record and stay below the adviced intake.
Its that "X foods are evil" mindset that causes people to develop unhealthy habits while under the impression they're doing good stuff. Calories are far from an effective way to measure the 'goodness' of a meal, and it concerns me that so many countries are making companies put calories on the menu's because that shit would affect people with EDs or a history of EDs way more than those that 'need it'. Also calories are a bullshit measure lmao, I could eat half a bag of chocolate eggs and that meter would tell me its about as healthy as a sufficient and good meal.
This kinda went off topic (I blame my ADD lmao) but yeah point is they're weird and overly strict principles to be living by. Make sure you eat healthy when you need it but allow yourself to enjoy life.
As someone who applied and “interviewed” (two 6 hour shifts) to be a prep cook for a “traditional American” restaurant only to be denied a position by the chef who I never met declared I was “too confident” while I watched grown men through tantrums drink liquor at he line and refuse to answer my questions about where my buckets of prepped vege went in the walk in. I can attest food culture is so toxic and sexist still.
Even fast food places have such a weird kitchen culture, the owner of the store I work at told someone to come in anyway after testing positive for COVID.
Yeah it’s messy
8:56 "gets to mentor angel and develop a meal plan, just for him" I love how the middle contestant rolls their eyes lmao, same...
as a cook who worked like 10 years in restaurants, thank your for this video
For real! It almost made me miss it. Almost. 😉
@@chadjazeera9960 I do miss it, I wanna go back....I just wish the industries problems weren't to uphill to fight
@@matthewjanney2399 totally. There is actually a lot I miss about it... It just doesn't outweigh the things I don't miss. Plus I was a huge alcoholic then. Sober now. That's on me though, not the job.
@@chadjazeera9960 I think the darkest side of the industry is that while for many it's a transitory job you do cause it's a/last option it also draws in people who find a passion in it....and the exploits and grinds them down for every dollar it can suck out while underpaying cause the machine realizes they're doing it for a higher reasithan money
@@matthewjanney2399 You make more money in just about ever single other line of work. Took me 15 years to realize that unfortunately
It is so sexist too. It’s sad that when I think back about the cooks I was “close with” or liked to work with even it was the ones who spoke respectfully to me, didn’t blow me off get annoyed over a guest’s request or complaint, and generally treated me as an equal. I remember a girl getting legitimately uncomfortable and upset and like the other women in the FOH were ANNOYED and just the attitude was “yeah that’s how it is, you get used to it, irs whatever they’re just kidding it prolly means they like you” (ew) but at the time i was also used to it and literally remember a cook like blocking me stuck into the walk in and trying to kiss me and when I like panicked and said no they had the nerve to huff and puff (not that this is ever okay, but irs not like this was some guy my age I was flirting with or even remotely inviting and implying consent, this was like a 50 yo man and i had mentioned not being single and the fact that I was 21). And I just didn’t say anything and just knew it would be awkward to work together now pretty much and hoped honestly they didn’t say anything. Also it was so homophobic too. There was an openly gay server assistant one time and everyone called him names and shit. The front was bad too but it was such a weird dynamic at most every serving and bar tending job I’ve had
this all gives me shudder memories from every single restaurant job where i specifically applied for a back of house position and would inevitably by day 2 be being shoved out to the front of house by my boss telling me to smile pretty at the customers, because apparently putting me on display was some kind of requirement
This is what it's like for working poor people everywhere as far as I can tell. To an extent. The girls where I've worked were very rarely sexually assaulted though they were treated poorly by men who felt that they had to overcome it in order to be tough enough to handle the job.
@@okayokayfineilldoit ew that’s gross. Not to mention it’s not rlly fair to put somebody into that position anyways- but even more gross to basically rub it in a workers’ face that you’re making money off of their womanhood, and smiles that they uphold guests’ expectation of getting free with the experience. It can already feel demeaning enough to be forcing a positive attitude and allegiance to hopefully be paid by that table who holds your tip in their hands and dangles it above your head so you do backflips and roll over like a circus animal.
I remember I had this like absurdly snobby and bizarre group when I was at a place that did banquets and event hosting. They had the most bizarre expectations and when the new guests arrived I came by to greet them and get their drink orders and he told me to leave them alone and I was being annoying (in a much less nicer way lol), then once I found a way to make that happen and decided to give them space, complained about why I had been gone too long. After degrading me the entire evening, he literally through the bills on the floor that were my tip and told me to pick them up if I wanted it lmao. It was the grossest and weirdest thing ever. Even more humiliating because I NEEDED that pathetic 60 dollars
Ugh this reminds me of when I was working at a pizza shop when I was under 18 and almost every day I worked with a coworker he’d ask me when I turned 18 🤢. I straight up quit that job before I turned 18 as I knew the harassment would only get worse when I wasn’t a minor and the worst part was the managers were irl friends with the creeps meaning nothing would happen.
@@gailpods so nasty and straight up wrong to just perpetrate r@pe culture (I’m sorry but that’s literally what that is, normalizing the idea of fantasying about minors and asserting your power and desires over them as if it’s just how it goes). And like the managers who normalize and allow it are just
As much to blame IMO. Nobody is forcing them to reward and foster that environment. Glad you got out of that situation, that stuff can be really scary and it sucks to feel sick to your stomach over that every day before work
I love that you constantly relate your experiences as a line cook throughout your video. I worked as a line cook for quite a long time, and it's funny how much of a unique job culture it has.
In late 90's, I was a baker at a local supermarket and barely paying bills. I decided that if this was going to be a 'career', I should go to culinary school. I visited about 5 different schools on east coast/midwest and at the last minute backed out. I couldn't put my finger on it but something felt off or not right about it and your video cleared it up: it was WAY too macho for me. I never would have survived in that environment. It's kind of fucked up that even a naïve 20something can pickup on weird vibes just by going on a 60minute tour of a campus. And if I remember correctly, culinary schools loans were somewhat expensive and needed to be private loans and I don't think those are ever dischargeable (although things may have recently changed)
House Cooks and chefs have always been a weird thing for me when I think about how sexist working in restaurants was and is. Like it's was always seen as a woman's job to cook dinner but working as chef was seen as a mans job. Why is that? It seems like backwards logic to me. It's like as soon as anything is done as a profession it instantly became man's work.
Its also really alarming to me that restaurants expect you to turn up to work sick. Of all the jobs to take sick days I feel like someone who's touching your food should be one of those jobs where you don't show up to work sick. It's a safety hazard. Surely the few days your employee takes off work costs less than being sued by all your customers because you made them sick.
I saved this to watch with my husband who was a cook and caterer for seven years and a dishwasher for six years. He loved it, especially when you said "This is the representation we need!"
Bourdain also retreaded a LOT of the things he said in Kitchen Confidential in his followup book Medium Raw.
His comments at the time were exactly how the industry worked. It didnt age well, and he mentioned that. He also said that people would come up to him at book signings and offer him drugs and tell him "you wrote my life man!" and he wasn constantly having to remind them that his book wasnt meant to be romantic, it was meant to be a cautionary tale, he just didnt communicate that well enough.
Sucks he has to be remembered for something he said early on in his career and grew out of.
those healthy chefs really arent that good if they cant find a way to replicate an unhealthy snack in an unhealthy way. they basically threw a mini tantrum and made their own random dish that has nothing to do with anything. not to mention how that won't help the person transition into healthy foods
"they want to drink all night then show up at 7am the next day to receive a produce order while chain smoking and still drunk." spot fckin on
I think Bourdain said you dont work 16 hours in a hot sweaty hallway sober.
All thise articles feel a step away from saying "My compliements to the chef please inform him i desire him carnally"
So the point of the ‘Cook your ass off’ show is to show people quick and healthy meals that are easy to prepare and cook within 20 minutes, but even the professional chefs in a professional kitchen with professional equipment usually fail to achieve that? If anything, that is going to put people OFF cooking for themselves.
As a picky eater, I'm confused of why the picky eaters didn't said what textures/flavors they can't stand-- that's like, the first thing you say when someone is cooking for you
Good point honestly it wouldn't be that much time or anything
"Now I'm going to be critical of some fairly beloved food media figures" *shows Julia Child*
Me: Oh no, not Julia!
"She was a great host; you should find her videos"
Me: Oh thank god, okay, tear the rest of these people to shreds
I didn't choose the corndog lifestyle, *_the corndog lifestyle chose me._*
I worked food service jobs when I was younger and am now a scientist.
You made me realize something interesting.
Misogyny has morphed into something that is not inherently justified but constantly needs an excuse.
The kitchen had to be portrayed as some kind of war zone so that men felt entitled to bully women out of it.
A lot of labs I’ve worked at have scheduled rush jobs and created long days and used that as an excuse to push working mothers out.
I’m sure similar things happen in other industries.
I guess that’s progress compared to not even looking for an excuse?
Idea: Cooking show that replicates the kitchen of a low rent apartment. As in, a specific one at a specific address.
Right down to available tools.
If occupied, available ingredients also.
And the chefs are given a half hour to cook the food, then another to *explain how to* cook it, in writing, and then their food is ignored and the judges follow the written instructions as best they can and then judge the food that creates.